ORFA News

March 2, 2018Rick Hansen Foundation - Leadership Forum Follow Up

Dear ORFA,

In follow-up from our November Leadership Forum, I’m pleased to let you know that the Conference Board of Canada has released a report today demonstrating how improved physical accessibility in workplaces and communities for people with disabilities would result in a dramatic increase in labour force participation and consumer spending in Canada.

The report, The Business Case to Build Physically Accessible Environments, contains some compelling findings showing how improved accessibility is an economic imperative. Highlights of the report include:

People with physical disabilities make up a large and growing consumer group, representing 14% of consumer spending, or $164 billion. By 2030, real spending by this group is anticipated to grow at three times the pace of the overall population, representing 21 per cent of the total consumer market or $316 billion annually.

Improvements to workplace access would allow over half a million Canadians with disabilities to work more hours, increasing our GDP by $16.8 billion by 2030.

Almost half (49%) of Canadians with physical disabilities who are currently working believe they would be able to work more hours if workplaces were made more accessible.

Please download an updated version of the 2017 Leadership Forum Powerpoint presentation by Ruth Write with the final report results here. The RHF press release can be found here, and the full report can be found here.

This report includes compelling findings that we can all use in our work to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. I encourage you to share these important statistics with your networks to help make Canada accessible and inclusive for all.